Insiders sense healthy realty on horizon

Healthy growth of the real estate sector figures among the identified key tasks for China in 2022, experts said on Monday.

Their remarks were part of a quick review of the key announcements made after the conclusion of the three-day annual Central Economic Work Conference in Beijing on Friday.

The property market, experts said, will continue to be a stabilizer of national economic growth as the policy tone-setting conference reaffirmed that "housing is for living in, not for speculation".

This indicated consistency in policy stance will enable adjustments to short-term measures, and keep market expectations stable.

The principle will not be given up even during testing times like downtrends in the market or regional risks, said Li Yujia, chief analyst at the provincial residential policy research center of Guangdong province.

Experts also noted that consequent to the conference, China will accelerate the development of the long-term rental housing market, push forward the construction of affordable housing projects and support the real estate market to better meet reasonable home－buying demand.

They said the conference made it clear that the differentiated policies will apply to various cities in accordance with their peculiar local conditions. This approach will help promote the property sector's healthy development and form a virtuous cycle.

Real estate industry insiders observed that the housing market started to cool in the second half of this year due to slowing demand. There was also market speculation on stimulus measures to be worked out for the residential property sector.

Xu Xiaole, chief analyst with the Beike Research Institute, said the real estate market should guard against systemic risk and steer clear of speculative activities.

The economic conference also echoed announcements made after a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, which underlined the goal of promoting the property sector's healthy development and forming a virtuous cycle.

In order to achieve a virtuous cycle, the real estate industry should prevent and control risks to make the whole market operate smoothly, Xu said.

Ni Pengfei, a research center director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was quoted by China News Service as saying that "policies must be stable and consistent, and at the same time must be fine-tuned according to different areas' specific situations".

According to Ni, from the perspective of industrial chains, supply chains and capital chains, policies and adjustments should be formulated to ensure every segment of the property industry is in a state of healthy operation, effective convergence and smooth transmission.

The conference also reviewed the development of government-subsidized housing, an important channel of supply that complements commercial housing.

According to Wang Menghui, minister of housing and urban-rural development, subsidized rental housing plays an important role in the nation's housing system.

The development of subsidized rental housing will be one of the key tasks for the housing sector during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25). Given the improved housing security system, the supply of subsidized housing will be further increased.